Attitude of Dental Students towards Their Oral Health Care

ABSTRACT Dental students have a major role in dental health promotion not only through their skills but also as a role model for the general population. Therefore, this study intended to evaluate the attitude of undergraduate dental students towards their self oral care. This study also intended to find out the difference in attitude between the genders and between the students in the preclinical and clinical year. This is a questionnaire based study conducted in four colleges in Bangalore. The study was conducted using a modified version of HU-DBI questionnaire. The participants gave their responses according to five point Likert scale. High scores denoted the strength of positivity of the attitude. The data was analyzed using SPSS. Student t-test was used to find the significance level. Questionnaire was distributed to 430 students, out of which 421 students answered, that included consisted of 191 females (45.4%) and 230 males (54.6%). Among 421 participants, 199 participants (47.2%) belong to preclinical year of study and 222 (52.7%) from clinical year of study. Mean per question was higher in clinical year students when compared to preclinical year students, indicating the improvement in the attitude with the progress in the academic years. There was no significant difference in attitude between the genders towards the oral care. The current study shows that dental students show better attitude towards their dental care and they may form a better role model for the general population and patients

Prevalence of Hepatitis C Antibodies Among Hemodialysis Patients in Al-Hasa Region of Saudi Arabia

The prevalence of anti-HCV antibodies among hemodialysis (HD) patients was studied at King Fahad Hospital, Hofuf, Saudi Arabia. The records of 189 patients undergoing HD were reviewed. The overall prevalence of anti-HCV antibodies was 43.9%. Anti-HCV antibody prevalence was more common among female patients. There was no correlation between repeated blood transfusions and anti-HCV positivity as 4.8% of the patients who did not receive any blood transfusion during HD were positive for anti-HCV antibodies. A positive correlation was observed between the duration on dialysis and anti-HCV antibodies. An annual serocoversion rate of 6.8% was observed in this study

Muscarinic receptor 1 agonist activity of novel N-aryl carboxamide substituted 3-morpholino arecoline derivatives in Alzheimer's presenile dementia models

Earlier we have reported the effect of arecoline thiazolidinone and morpholino arecoline derivatives as muscarinic receptor 1 agonists in Alzheimer's presenile dementia models. To elucidate further our Structure-Activity Relationship (SAR) studies on the chemistry and muscarinic receptor 1 binding efficacy, a series of novel carboxamide derivatives of 2-(1-methyl-1,2,5,6-tetrahydropyridin-3-yl) morpholine molecule have been designed and synthesized as a new class of M1 receptor agonists with a low toxicity effect pro. le that enhances memory function in animal models of Alzheimer's presenile dementia and also modulates the APP secretion from rat brain cerebrocortical slices by activating M1 receptor in vitro. Results suggest that compound 9b having methyl group at the para position of the aryl group attached to the carboxamide of morpholino arecoline could emerge as a potent molecule having antidementia activity. (C) 2009 Published by Elsevier Ltd

Evaluation of physico-mechanical characteristics of cashew nut shell liquid-epoxy composites with Borassus and Tamarind fruit fibres as reinforcements

In this study, Cashew Nut Shell Liquid (CNSL)-epoxy matrix-based composites reinforced with borassus and tamarind fibres were fabricated using compression moulding technique. Three different types of composites were fabricated, namely Borassus fruit fine fibre/CNSL-epoxy composites (BF composites), Tamarind fibre/CNSL-epoxy composites (TF composites) and Tamarind/Borassus fruit fine fibre CNSL-epoxy hybrid composites (HB composites). In addition, CNSL-epoxy neat polymer was also fabricated for comparison. Physical properties such as micro-hardness, void percentage, and mechanical properties like tensile, flexural, Interlaminar Shear Strength (ILSS), and impact strength were investigated. Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) was used to study the failure mechanism of the composites. Experimental results indicate that tensile and flexural properties of BF composites were higher when compared to TF and HB composites. Micro-hardness and impact strength of HB composites were better than the others. SEM images indicated better fibre-matrix bonding in BF composites indicating improved resistance to delamination. Thus, borassus and tamarind fibre reinforced CNSL-epoxy composites can be used as an alternative material for light to moderately loaded structural engineering applications